Watch Johnny Marr join Franz Ferdinand for The Smiths’ ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ in Manchester

Johnny Marr joined Franz Ferdinand in Manchester last night for a trio of songs including The Smiths’ ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ – see footage below.

• READ MORE: Franz Ferdinand tell us about new album ‘The Human Fear’ and pop growing “stale”

The Scottish indie band were playing at the city’s Aviva Studios on Saturday (January 18) for a show as part of Amazon Music’s City Sessions series, which was streamed live on Prime Video and Amazon Music’s Twitch channel.

Franz Ferdinand played tracks from across their career, with a focus on their new album ‘The Human Fear’, which was released earlier this month. ‘Build It Up’ from the album was the first track that saw them joined by Smiths legend Marr, swiftly followed by ‘Do You Want To’ from their second album ‘You Could Have It So Much Better’.

The collaboration was rounded off by a version of the Smiths classic ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’, first released on their seminal 1986 album ‘The Queen Is Dead’.

Check out footage of the collaboration below.

Wow@Franz_Ferdinand and @Johnny_Marr at Aviva Studios Manchester

“Bigmouth Strikes Again” pic.twitter.com/8iV1HgrJBu

— Altrincham HQ – Social Media Marketing in Manc (@altrinchamhq) January 18, 2025

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Manic_pixels (@manic_pixels)

Franz Ferdinand played: 

‘The Doctor’ 
‘No You Girls’ 
‘Night Or Day’ 
‘Walk Away’ 
‘Audacious’ 
‘Stand On The Horizon’ 
‘The Dark Of The Matinee’ 
‘Bar Lonely’ 
‘Love Illumination’ 
‘Build It Up’ (with Johnny Marr) 
‘Do You Want To’ (with Johnny Marr) 
‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ (with Johnny Marr) 
‘Take Me Out’ 
‘Hooked’ 
‘The Birds’ 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Johnny Marr (@johnnymarrgram)

Marr himself posted about his appearance with the band after the show, writing on Instagram: “Love and best to my friends @franz_ferdinand for a great time and great show.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alex Kapranos (@alkapranos)

Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos also took to Instagram after the show, posting two photographs of himself and Marr sharing a moment backstage, set to the mandolin strains of The Smiths’ ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’.

Produced by Mark Ralph (who previously worked with the Scottish Mercury Prize-winners on 2013’s ‘Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action’), ‘The Human Fear’ marks the band’s first studio album since 2018’s acclaimed and dance-driven ‘Always Ascending’.

In a four-star review of the new album, NME wrote: “In uncertain and scary times, where do you find confidence? On the spiked post-punk closer ‘The Birds’, Kapranos asks: “Is that what we want? To be with others who know, who understand who we are and what we’ve done?” This album is the answer to that question.”

“On the vivacious ‘Night Or Day’, he declares: “I’ll never get bored of you, or the thing you do”. It’s a love letter to the idea of this band. Still shamelessly livin’ it up, with an eyebrow cocked and high kicks galore, ‘The Human Fear’ is – as promised – Franz-y as fuck. You do you, hun; you do it so well.”

Speaking to NME about the LP, frontman Alex Kapranos shared: “I don’t think there’s a single song that you’ll hear on the album and won’t think, ‘Oh, is that Franz Ferdinand?’ At the same time, there will be thinking, ‘Oh, did they really do that?’ That’s not to say I start rapping or anything like that.”

The post Watch Johnny Marr join Franz Ferdinand for The Smiths’ ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’ in Manchester appeared first on NME.